press releases

Greenpeace today (Monday 2nd April) revealed that Texas-based oil giant JET has been funding US President George Bush's sabotaging of international action on global warming. The revelation comes as seven Greenpeace volunteers approached the 24 hour mark in their occupation of JET's oil exploration rig the Drillstar. The activists have been successfully preventing the rig from leaving Scotland's Cromarty Firth to drill in the North Sea since Sunday morning. JET has now taken the Greenpeace volunteers to court to force them to end their peaceful occupation.

Bush has recently shocked Europe by going back on his promise to cut pollution from US power stations and is refusing to co-operate with the world's efforts to combat global warming saying it is not in the US's "economic interests".

Nine Greenpeace volunteers were barricaded up in the oil-rigs 180ft drill stack, before abseiling down the JET rig to safety. The climbers were in good spirits and determined to stop JET wrecking the climate with more oil.

Laura Yates, Greenpeace volunteer, said
"It was windy and starting to get cold, but we were feeling really pleased that we managed to stop the Jet oilrig from going out to sea to drill for more oil that we can't burn".

Twenty-one Greenpeace volunteers today (Sunday, 1st April, 10.30am) took part in a dramatic mass occupation to stop a JET oil exploration rig as it was leaving Scotland's Cromarty Firth. The oil from US multinational JET is fuelling dangerous global warming which is threatening the lives of millions and flooding homes.

In response to a letter from BNFL accusing them of inaccuracies in a report on safety problems at Wylfa nuclear power station, Greenpeace today challenged BNFL to a full public debate.

Research released today by Greenpeace International reveals that trials of genetically modified vines are currently underway in key wine growing countries across the world, including the USA (California), France, Australia, Italy and Germany (1).

Greenpeace is urging governments to halt these trials amid concerns that they could destroy traditional and organic grape varieties. The call came as they released results of a survey showing that UK wine retailers unanimously reject GM wine.

The Anglo-Dutch multinational, Unilever, has admitted that the mercury contaminated waste dumps exposed by Greenpeace and local citizens' groups two weeks ago, originated from its mercury thermometer factory in the Indian tourist town of Kodiakanal.

Although its Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Lever, initially denied responsibility for the 5.3 tonnes of wastes lying at the Munjikal scrapyard in Kodaikanal, it finally closed its factory pending an investigation and has said it will assess the environmental consequences of the dump.

Greenpeace today welcomed the report on sustainable waste management by the House of Commons Select Committee on the Environment, Transport and the Regions. The report condemns the Government's policy on waste incineration and raises real doubts about the safety and regulation of the technology.

The report itself says that "incineration will never play a major role in truly sustainable waste management" and that "the health effects, which result from an incinerator's emissions, are not yet fully known".

Oil giant BP stands to lose 5 percent of total earnings from declining petrol sales as the market for green fuel technology expands and regulations to reduce CO2 emissions begin to bite. The startling findings are contained in a report by financial analysts Innovest, which is published today by Greenpeace.

The new UK Government life cycle analysis (LCA) of PVC and alternatives has been unable to find a way to address the main issue surrounding the use of the material - the impact of toxic pollutants generated throughout its life cycle. This means the LCA adds little information of use to the current debate on policy measures needed to reduce the environmental impact of PVC.

However, even without taking into account environmental impacts of major pollutants, the report finds PVC to be the worst of the options it considered for windows and floors. This is because timber and linoleum use less energy, contribute less to global warming gases, use fewer non-renewable resources and generate less waste. In fact the LCA depends almost entirely on energy consumption, as nearly all of the six impact assessment categories (Greenhouse effect, air acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant formation, water eutrophication and non-renewable resource depletion) follow from this.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has confirmed to Greenpeace that it has no plans to release genetically modified (GM) so-called "Golden Rice" into the environment. Field trials are unlikely to take place within the next five years.